| Title | Introduction to the Field Guide |
|---|---|
| Contributor | Rebecca Lave(author) |
| Stuart Lane(author) | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0418.01 |
| Landing page | https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0418/chapters/10.11647/obp.0418.01 |
| License | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
| Copyright | Rebecca Lave; Stuart N. Lane; |
| Publisher | Open Book Publishers |
| Published on | 2025-02-25 |
| Long abstract | This short chapter introduces the intellectual rationale for the Field Guide and its intended audience and structure. We argue that mixed biophysical and social methods are necessary to understand the increasingly eco-social world in which we live. We also argue for a deeply empirical approach to research design: “listening” to what your field site “tells” you about how it should be studied. |
| Page range | pp. 1–8 |
| Print length | 8 pages |
| Language | English (Original) |
Rebecca Lave is Professor of Geography at Indiana University and the 2022-2025 American Association of Geographers Vice-President/President/Past-President. Her research takes a Critical Physical Geography approach, combining political economy, STS, and fluvial geomorphology to analyze stream restoration, the politics of environmental expertise, and community-based responses to flooding. She has published in journals ranging from Science to Social Studies of Science and is the author of two monographs: Fields and Streams: Stream Restoration, Neoliberalism, and the Future of Environmental Science (2012, University of Georgia Press) and Streams of Revenues: The Restoration Economy and the Ecosystems it Creates (2021 MIT Press; co-written with Martin Doyle). She has co-edited four volumes, including the Handbook of Critical Physical Geography (2018, with Christine Biermann and Stuart N. Lane).
Stuart N. Lane is Professor of Geomorphology at the University of Lausanne. He is a geographer and civil engineer by training who has held posts at the Universities of Cambridge, Leeds and Durham in the U.K. and Lausanne in Switzerland. His work has sought to bring a geographical perspective to contemporary environmental concerns such as flooding and pollution. The primary focus of his current work is the environments created by disappearing glaciers in terms of ice, water, sediment and ecosystems and the consequences of these changes for environmental management. An important thread through his most recent research criticizes the current alignment of geography as a discipline with the ever more neo-liberal academy; and then argues for the rediscovery of a more scientific geographical science better able to cope with the crises the world is experiencing today.